THE Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) does not want the "income-tax challan" to go the "stamp-paper" way.

It is planning to phase out tax payment challans from the system with effect from April 1, 2004.

"We are planning to dematerialise tax challans. The proposed system will also give us an assurance that there is little room for manipulation. Tax collections runs into thousands of crores and we need to be sure that there is no scope for any fakes or manipulation," CBDT Member, Mr B. Swarup, told newspersons here.

The CBDT on Wednesday also announced the selection of professional services firm Ernst & Young and NSE.IT, the IT subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), to be the technology advisors for the ongoing technology initiative of the tax department that aims to provide online facilities to all taxpayers under the "Taxnet" scheme.

The CBDT has also appointed National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) as the e-TDS intermediary. With this appointment, corporates can now file their Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) returns electronically through NSDL.